Scientists discover two 'super-Earths' orbiting same star

An international team of scientists discovered two "super-Earth" planets orbiting the same star roughly 100 light-years away from us – and one of them could be suitable to host human life.

Exoplanets are constantly being found throughout space, as NASA found over 5,000 beyond our solar system in March. However there have only been just over 1,500 "super-Earth" planets – ones bigger than Earth but lighter than Neptune and Uranus – discovered, according to NASA.

But researchers from the University of Liège in Belgium and the University of Birmingham in England announced the findings of the planets on Wednesday, both of which are larger than Earth and have longer days than us, USA Today reports.

The discovery was first made using NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which surveys "200,000 of the brightest stars near the sun to search for transiting exoplanets." From there, researchers used their "Search for habitable Planets EClipsing ULtra-cOOl Stars" (SPECULOOS) telescope to confirm the identity of one planet.

The planet, identified as LP 890-9b, is about 30% larger than Earth and completes an orbit around its star in 2.7 days.

However, when observing LP 890-9b, scientists happened to find another planet orbiting around the same star. The planet LP 890-9c, later named SPECULOOS-2c by University of Liège scientists, is 40% larger than Earth with a much longer orbit around its star – about 8.5 days.

Even though the days are much longer on the second planet and it's much closer to its star than Earth is to the sun, observations show the planet could be suitable for life.

"Although this planet orbits very close to its star, at a distance about 10 times shorter than that of Mercury around our Sun, the amount of stellar irradiation it receives is still low, and could allow the presence of liquid water on the planet's surface, provided it has a sufficient atmosphere," Francisco J. Pozuelos, the researcher at the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusi and co-author of the paper, said in a statement.

The star that the two planets orbit is over six times smaller than our sun, and its temperature is half of our star, Pozuelos added.

"This explains why LP 890-9c, despite being much closer to its star than the Earth is to the sun, could still have conditions that are suitable for life," he said.

The possibility of sustainable life on the planet is why scientists are going to continue to observe it and will be able to do so with the help of the James Webb Space Telescope.

The goal is to eventually confirm that this planet, along with other "super-Earths," can support life.

"The discovery of LP 890-9c, therefore, offers a unique opportunity to better understand and constrain the habitability conditions around the smallest and coolest stars in our solar neighborhood," said Laetitia Delrez, an astrophysicist at the University of Liège and lead author of the study.